This invention relates to an electronic control device for the individual drives of machining machines, particularly of machine tools having a plurality of tool and/or workpiece drive apparatuses, for the machining of workpieces in machining cycles. The invention also relates to a process for controlling machining machines.
Machine tools having a plurality of machining stations and many workpiece and tool drives, such as multi-spindle automatic lathes, for example, have hitherto predominantly been controlled mechanically from a central control shaft via cams. A mechanical control system such as this operates reliably and rapidly, the control movements are easy to monitor and operation of the machine is simple. However, mechanical cam control systems can only be adapted to changed operating conditions in a manner which is very time-consuming, so that machines of this type are only suitable for machining workpieces for which large-scale manufacture is necessary. Resetting a mechanical cam control system is very time-consuming, is inconvenient for the operator, and results in high costs.
In order to avoid these disadvantages of mechanical cam control it is also already known that the tool drives can be provided with separate drive motors, the latter being controlled electronically according to a predetermined program. However, for this purpose it is necessary to assign a separate computer to each drive and to tune these computers to each other by means of a main computer. The expenditure required for this is considerable and the number of drives which can still be controlled simultaneously, even when very powerful computers are used, is restricted, since a very large amount of data has to be processed within a very short timescale.